Pneumonia vaccine

Just signed up for a pneumonia vaccine. Figure it may help if I get Covid again, since I had pneumonia so bad.

[My BioEssays study revealed that the greater the percentage of people who were vaccinated with either the Prevnar-13 pneumococcal vaccine as children or with the Pneumovax 23 as adults over the age of 65, the fewer cases of COVID-19 per million people were reported in that country.  A combination of childhood plus adult pneumococcal vaccination rates was an even better predictor. These results were controlled for COVID-19 risk factors such as the percent of the population over the age of 65 or having diabetes or obesity.]

https://www.advancedsciencenews.com/can-the-pneumonia-vaccine-protect-against-covid-19/

Top recommendations

I’ve received about 5 texts or DMs with questions about covid every day for the past 8 months. Here are my top recommendations:

1) Take vitamin D (low vitamin D levels are highly linked to more severe symptoms).
2) Eat food with potassium, such as bananas, coconut water, green vegetables. Covid can lower your potassium levels, which can cause heart palpitations. My levels were so low, I had to eat 3 bananas a day (this could be an issue with ppl with diabetes of course)
3) Eat little sugar (some studies have shown bad immune responses with ppl who have covid and eat lots of sugar)
4) Take probiotics. Drink ginger tea. There are lots of links to gut health and COVID. Many people find Pepcid Ac helps for some reason.
5) Drink lots of lemon water, especially in the am. It has anti-viral properties and cleans your organs
6) If you are congested, use vapor rub, vapo shower bombs are amazing. Warm humidifiers help a lot
7) If you have difficulty breathing, use spirometers ($8) or “The Breather” to do breathing exercises to strengthen your lungs. This helped me 10 fold after only 1 day. I think if a doctor would’ve given this to me on the first hospital visit, instead of the 3rd, I would have significantly improved faster
8)Do NOT lie on your back all day. No matter how tired you are. Your lungs are mostly in your back and it can make your pneumonia worse. Walk around a little or lie on your stomach
9) If you are having lots of issues, go to the ER. Get a chest X-ray and blood tests. Also, have them test your oxygen levels while lying on your back and walking
10) If you have breathing issues, aches or chest pain, use CBD icy hot roll ons or put lidocaine patches on your chest
11) Raw garlic and apple cider vinegar have lots of strong properties for improving the immune system. I cut up a raw clove of garlic every day and swallowed it with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar

Of course, ask your doctor before doing anything. I am no doctor but I have read lots of studies and joined tons of covid support groups. I read lots of what has worked for others around the world. I also have my own experiences

Read about this young woman’s long term struggle with covid


I just crossed the 4 month mark of being sick w’ #COVID19. I am young, & I was healthy. Dying is not the only thing to worry about. I still have a near-daily fever, loss of cognitive function, essential tremors, GI issues, severe headaches, heartrate of 150+, viral arthritis,
heart palpitations, muscle aches, a feeling like my body has forgotten to breathe. Over the past 124 days I’ve lost all feeling in my arms & hands, had extreme back/kidney/rib pain, phantom smells (like someone BBQing bad meat), tinnitus, difficulty understanding text/reading, difficulty following conversations, sensitivity to noise & light, nonstop bruising. Thinking can cause headaches now. I’m not alone in the cognitive issues; it’s as common a symptom as cough.

No one knows when #longcovid patients aren’t contagious; many are alone for months.
People w’ #longcovid weren’t able to get testing until late. There are people on my same timeline who are only now learning they had strokes & encephalitis & heart attacks. MRIs/CT scans were only accessible in the ER. Drs were solely looking at the lungs for way too long.
The symptoms are bizarre. There are people with brand new #allergies to the point of anaphylaxis; others whose allergies have disappeared. Post-menopausal women who are having spotting and periods again. Medications spontaneously stop working, need to be adjusted higher/lower.
It causes flareups of other viruses, past surgeries, other conditions. Old injuries are raw & feel new again. My left leg & foot, injured in a moped accident in 2017, feels crushed like it happened yesterday.

Intolerance to exercise, alcohol, caffeine, & stress are common.
Insomnia is common. The dreams are vivid & bizarre, often lucid dreams, often violent & nightmarish, many reports of dreaming about people who have passed away.

The symptoms wax & wane; you think you’re getting better, only to be hit again. New symptoms appear constantly.
The CDC is starting to acknowledge us & the #LongCovid numbers are high: 35% of people are not back to normal after the suggested ‘recovery’ period.

Given the US’s current cases of 4.2 million, that’s 1,470,000 long haulers in the US alone.

In patients aged 18-34 with no pre-existing conditions, that number is 20%. I was in that unlucky camp & you could be too. This life is a weird parallel one where almost everything in your old world feels alien & unreal; I don’t want it to happen to a single other person. I had been isolating for 11 days on the day of my first symptoms and I probably got it on a trip to the grocery store. There is almost nothing that is worth losing 4+ months of your life in this way. No BBQ, no tech event, no haircut.
This isn’t the flu where you can curl up with netflix and tea for a few weeks; this is an active, awful illness with neurological effects for most.

For now we’re holding out hope for #recognition, #research & #rehab. And we’re doing our own research: patientresearchcovid19.com
I want to add that people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (#pwme) have gone through this same thing without any of the attention #LongCovid is getting; we need to remember them & bring them along with whatever recognition & funding we receive. And IMPORTANTLY, like #ME…
…we are going to be in trouble if we start getting lumped into a singular diagnosis or the dismissive “chronic fatigue syndrome”; everyone’s #LongCovid struggles are different, not everyone has fatigue/exercise intolerance, advocacy for heterogeneous treatments is vital!

Post by a teacher about reopening schools

Hi! Welcome to Kindergarten! I’m going to be your teacher, Miss Litten. I know you can’t see me because I’m wearing this mask with a shield over my face. Oh, no, hunny. It’s ok. I’m not scary. I’m smiling at you underneath all of this. Come hold my hand… ummm…nevermind. Let me give you a hug…errr…Let’s take a look at all the toys we will play with this year. Bummer, that’s right. Nevermind. We can’t share toys this year. But hey, you’re going to meet so many new friends in Kindergarten! You’ll get to play with them and everything!! Well, not play with play with. I mean like you’re six feet apart and you’re each bouncing your own ball. That’s fun, right? Well, anyways, here’s our library. We can’t have books on the shelves. You can’t touch the same books as your classmates because of those silly little germs! So, instead, I’ll give you these black and white paper books that I stapled together and put in your very own cardboard box! You can take it to your seat aaaaalllllllll the way over here. I’ll be aaaalllllll the way over there if you need me. Oh, what’s that? Your shoe is untied. Let me tie it for…did you just have that shoe lace in your mouth? Sweetie, I can’t tie it now because it has those pesky germs on it. Just tuck them in your shoes. Ok. Now let me see if you can write your name. That’s not how you hold your pencil, Kiddo! Here, let me show you. I’ll put my hand over your hand and guide you…oh, I mean, let me just show you how to hold it. Put your pointer finger…no that’s not pointer…oh, shucks. Nevermind. We will be using computers most of the time anyways, who needs to learn pencil grip?! Here’s your computer 💻. Isn’t it so neat and shiny?! I know it looks like everybody else’s but I also know that as a five year old you can keep track of yours and bring it to and from school everyday. We need computers this year because we might not be at school very long. If too many people get sick, I may not see you for a long time. But, I’ll email you and we can learn from our computers. What’s that? You want to learn how to read? We will try the best we can, Kiddo! Why are you crying? You’re hot with that mask on? Me too. No, Sweetie, we don’t have air conditioning at school. Water? We can’t use that water fountain anymore, Dear. Here’s a water bottle to fill up. You’re tired? I know, me too! Welcome to Kindergarten in 2020!

•••I had to capture my thoughts of what’s to come and the REALITY of it. No matter what schools choose to do, or what parents choose to do, I feel terrible for all students having to endure the school year ahead! I know I’ll try my very best no matter what, Kiddos!

Vía Millie Litten

Covid is not just a virus

Reopening is NOT safe. Covid is not just a virus “we will all eventually get.” Read this statement from Amy Wright, a nurse:

“Chickenpox is a virus. Lots of people have had it, and probably don’t think about it much once the initial illness has passed. But it stays in your body and lives there forever, and maybe when you’re older, you have debilitatingly painful outbreaks of shingles. You don’t just get over this virus in a few weeks, never to have another health effect. We know this because it’s been around for years, and has been studied medically for years.

Herpes is also a virus. And once someone has it, it stays in your body and lives there forever, and anytime they get a little run down or stressed-out they’re going to have an outbreak. Maybe every time you have a big event coming up (school pictures, job interview, big date) you’re going to get a cold sore. For the rest of your life. You don’t just get over it in a few weeks. We know this because it’s been around for years, and been studied medically for years.

HIV is a virus. It attacks the immune system and makes the carrier far more vulnerable to other illnesses. It has a list of symptoms and negative health impacts that goes on and on. It was decades before viable treatments were developed that allowed people to live with a reasonable quality of life. Once you have it, it lives in your body forever and there is no cure. Over time, that takes a toll on the body, putting people living with HIV at greater risk for health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, diabetes, bone disease, liver disease, cognitive disorders, and some types of cancer. We know this because it has been around for years, and had been studied medically for years.

Now with COVID-19, we have a novel virus that spreads rapidly and easily. The full spectrum of symptoms and health effects is only just beginning to be cataloged, much less understood.
So far the symptoms may include:
Fever
Fatigue
Coughing
Pneumonia
Chills/Trembling
Acute respiratory distress
Lung damage (potentially permanent)
Loss of taste (a neurological symptom)
Sore throat
Headaches
Difficulty breathing
Mental confusion
Diarrhea
Nausea or vomiting
Loss of appetite
Strokes have also been reported in some people who have COVID-19 (even in the relatively young)
Swollen eyes
Blood clots
Seizures
Liver damage
Kidney damage
Rash
COVID toes (weird, right?)

People testing positive for COVID-19 have been documented to be sick even after 60 days. Many people are sick for weeks, get better, and then experience a rapid and sudden flare up and get sick all over again. A man in Seattle was hospitalized for 62 days, and while well enough to be released, still has a long road of recovery ahead of him. Not to mention a $1.1 million medical bill.

Then there is MIS-C. Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children is a condition where different body parts can become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs. Children with MIS-C may have a fever and various symptoms, including abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, neck pain, rash, bloodshot eyes, or feeling extra tired. While rare, it has caused deaths.

This disease has not been around for years. It has basically been 6 months. No one knows yet the long-term health effects, or how it may present itself years down the road for people who have been exposed. We literally do not know what we do not know.

For those in our society who suggest that people being cautious are cowards, for people who refuse to take even the simplest of precautions to protect themselves and those around them, I want to ask, without hyperbole and in all sincerity:
How dare you?

How dare you risk the lives of others so cavalierly. How dare you decide for others that they should welcome exposure as “getting it over with”, when literally no one knows who will be the lucky “mild symptoms” case, and who may fall ill and die. Because while we know that some people are more susceptible to suffering a more serious case, we also know that 20 and 30-year-olds have died, marathon runners and fitness nuts have died, children and infants have died.

How dare you behave as though you know more than medical experts, when those same experts acknowledge that there is so much we don’t yet know, but with what we DO know, are smart enough to be scared of how easily this is spread, and recommend baseline precautions such as:
Frequent hand-washing
Physical distancing
Reduced social/public contact or interaction
Mask wearing
Covering your cough or sneeze
Avoiding touching your face
Sanitizing frequently touched surfaces

The more things we can all do to mitigate our risk of exposure, the better off we all are, in my opinion. Not only does it flatten the curve and allow health care providers to maintain levels of service that aren’t immediately and catastrophically overwhelmed; it also reduces unnecessary suffering and deaths, and buys time for the scientific community to study the virus in order to come to a more full understanding of the breadth of its impacts in both the short and long term.

I reject the notion that it’s “just a virus” and we’ll all get it eventually. What a careless, lazy, heartless stance.”

Covid kills kids with intellectual disabilities at higher rates

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article243470691.html

“Covid kills kids with intellectual disabilities at higher rates. Now, new research shows people with disabilities such as cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and autism are more likely to become infected by and die from COVID-19, especially at younger ages.”